because of the taxi drivers. The driving is actually crazy. I could probably stick my arm out the window at any time on my ride to school and easily touch an enormous bus or truck. Taxi is my only way of transportation because there are no buses that go to my part of the city, Shmeisani. A significant portion of our orientation revolved around dealing with taxi drivers. Though there are creeps everywhere in the world I have had a great time in taxis so far. For instance last night we had one driver blasting Michael Jackson the whole way home. This morning a driver was telling me about how much Arabs love Americans, but not American policy and continued to discuss the problems with supporting Israel. Even on such an emotional topic the taxi driver was very specific in separating the American people from American policy.
I haven’t felt any hostility from being American either. I went into a store one day to buy water and saw a picture of Saddam Hussein hanging behind the register. The man asked if I was American and I said I was. He then made machine gun motions and sounds. Even then, he was respectful to me and we had a nice conversation. I feel perfectly comfortable telling people I am America; I have received only positive reactions (well, minus the machine gun part).
Even being a woman here is a lot easier than I was expecting. I knew women were relatively free but I was still mentally prepared for a semester of lock down. I mean there is always having to deal with catcalls, but really that is harmless; eventually it just fades into the background. The hardest thing about coming here is not being nice. When someone says hi to me I naturally want to talk to him and smile and get to know him better. However, this sends the wrong messages to creeper guys so I have been working on my mean/don’t talk to me face. It is hard but I have found that you just have to find the right setting (aka not a man in a car or in the middle of the street).
I still can’t wear tank tops or anything above the knees but it almost feels normal now. I would be very uncomfortable wearing a tank top in public. On the positive side I wear beautiful scarves everyday. It does get super hot sometimes but you wouldn’t believe the temperature difference between the sun and the shade. Additionally it is going to start cooling down soon so I won’t be missing my American clothing (or lack thereof).
Speaking of weather, I was caught in my first dust storm two days ago! It wasn’t really a storm with swirling winds; just suddenly there was dust in the air. A few of my friends and I were out to dinner on a rooftop. By the end of the meal we could run our fingers over the table and see how much dust had accumulated. Gross. When we left we could taste it in our mouths and had to wrap our scarves around our heads just to walk around. It was pretty wild. I welcomed it though because it blocked out the sun making it much cooler : )
I will be able to post pictures! Off campus there is a knowledge society that has tons of computers, wifi, study rooms, a copy store, food, and you sign in with your fingerprint! I will be able to upload pics without worrying about slowing down the internet at home. A few more days and they will be up.
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I will have to tell Jack your comments about the taxi drivers! maybe he can get a job there..........Cheryl
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